Leinster Team Talk Thread (Love you Furlong time)

I'd go with Larmour. He's earned it.

Ulster played very well at the rds! They fronted up versus us.

I'd be hesitant to get Luke on v Toulouse. He's not been good.

Larmour is playing the best rugby of his career. His footwork is as good as ever, but he's a lot smarter in how he plays. He'll try and beat a defender if he's in a one on one, but otherwise he'll run into contact to generate a new phase of play. His finishing has also improved.

I think I'd still start JOB ahead of him next Saturday. The latter is just a faster player and we'll need that if we're to stress the Toulouse defence. Their defence isn't that impressive and line breaks can be generated through speed and accuracy of play.

Leinster decided it was meaningless when they sent over the kids on the tour.

They didn't play well but it is absolute arrogance to send none of your first ~25 players and expect to get results in SA.

A 14 man version of that Lions team bet a full strength Warriors first team by 23 points, leaving them coming away with zero points.

It matters little how the second/third string are performing as a group from now on, just how they do when any are asked to step in with the firsts.

There are no style points on how Leinster look vs last year, all that matters are trophies. SA under Rassie had plenty of ups and downs last season - we'll see if he can bring it together again with Leinster over the next few weeks.

Yes. They beat the Lions with a bonus point and list 60-7 to the Bulls.

Is there any chance the second string guys know they'll never get into the first team on merit, so there's less motivation? Deegan knows he won't get ahead of Doris. Penny won't get ahead of VDF and Connors, no matter how well he plays.

There's a bit more genuine competition in the backs with Osborne and Jimmy and Tommy o Brien competing for centre and wing spots.

It's not even debatable we are at a lower ebb than last year. The Irish contingent alone were at a higher physical peak than they are currently.

The attack is just not as fluent as it was last year either. The way we are rucking has changed. It was always going to take time to bed this in but it's been better than I expected.

Not sure how we will go next week. I would back our pack against anyone though and I just hope we can keep a hold of Dupont.

In every one of those 5 losses Leinster rested a significant number of their starters. Why do posters keep pointing to matches when all the front liners weren't out there?

Fine if you're trying to make an argument for Leinster's back-ups not being as strong as a group as last year, but that has little to do with the knock-out rugby to come.

The first half of the SF this year Leinster were good, it was the second half where they appeared to turn off. They let a very good side that kept battling back into the match. The way people talk about it you'd swear they were dire for the whole game.

Exactly! Nail on the ceann! The depth is not as good. 5 losses is unheard of for Leinster. I'd also point to the fact that La Rochelle are fairly shyte.

I'm not too concerned. There was always going to be a difficult transition period following Lancaster's departure.

It also wasn't helped that Leinster had a very turbulent pre-season period. We were missing over 20 players through injury and World Cup duties. We were also missing two senior coaches due to their own international commitments. Goodman was coaching Samoa until September and Nienaber didn't arrive until November.